"Hello."
The voice… Arwen could describe it no other way than to say it was like the silver of bells… like the barely audible chiming of light, and it came from the small figure standing in the middle of the glade. The light that had previously filled the clearing, continued to recede until Arwen could make out a tiny sphere cradled by two small hands. It was a girl child, with fair skin and hair, and eyes an indiscernible shade of blue somewhere between the velvet indigo of twilight and a cool predawn azure. At first she could easily have been mistaken as a daughter of the race of Men but the mysterious awareness that lingered in the depths of her eyes reminded Arwen more of the great Elven lords and ladies of old, of whom she herself was a descendant.
"I said 'Hello'," the girl said again, her piercing gaze focused on Arwen as the peredhel fumbled to reply. Instead of a greeting, however, the words that burst from Arwen's lips were, "What are you doing here?" and she looked around in search of others, hopefully adults for surely no one would leave such a young child alone in the middle of nowhere. "I fell," the silvery voice spoke sadly causing Arwen to look over in alarm. But besides being ill garbed for the cool night, the child carried no visible signs of harm. "Why don't you let me take a look at you, just to make sure you're all right," the peredhel said soothingly as if speaking to a wild creature and waited with baited breath as the girl padded over on small bare feet.
Running her hands gently over the girl's pale limbs, Arwen made sure that she was fine only her skin seemed unnaturally cool though that was expected since she wore only a thin shift. Taking a spare shirt from her bag, Arwen motioned for the child to put it on, "Would you like me to hold that for you?" she asked pointing to the pearl that the girl still clung to tightly. But she only shook her head, with a sigh Arwen rifled around in her bag again until she produced a leather thong with a tiny pouch at the end. Holding it open expectantly Arwen let the girl drop it into the little bag and then quickly pulled it shut and dropped it over the child's neck. The child seemed pleased with herself and grinned at the elf as she fingered the bag with her tiny fingers.
With quick efficiency Arwen dressed the child in the thick material, folding up the long sleeves and tucking the leather pouch with the pearl beneath the collar. "Now that you're all wrapped up, why don't you tell me who you are so we can find your family," Arwen said softly. "My name is Él," the child said and the peredhel wracked her brain, wondering why the name seemed so familiar. It came to her then that only the elvish poets used that word, it meant star. But why would this girl have an unusual elvish name the peredhel wondered but waited patiently for the girl to answer the rest of her question. "I am Ránayeldë do you know what that is?" With a frown Arwen shook her head 'no', though the sound of it teased at her memory, she could not place it.
"Well, Él, do you know where your parents are? Maybe I can take you to them," but the girl just looked sad the corners of her little mouth turning down.
"My mother is very far away, I can't reach her now." The pale face turned to the sky, gazing off into the distance only to turn, in the very next second to look up at Arwen, "She sent me to you. I'm to stay with you now, Lady." And to the peredhel's astonishment Él slipped her hand into hers.
"What do you mean?" Arwen asked hesitantly but the girl seemed unperturbed.
"Aren't you glad to see me? I know you were looking for me."
"But why would your mother send you to me?"
"She saw you too, looking up at her and she knew what you could do… You can help us can't you?" Él turned her grave eyes up to Arwen and inexplicably she felt the need to make Él happy. She nodded.
Reassured, the child tugged Arwen back through the tree, leaving the glade behind and she followed unresistingly. Thoughts tumbled and churned in her mind, Él's words playing over and over again… she fell, I followed her, her mother saw me from above…When the reached the edge of the small copse of trees Arwen slouched against the nearest bole in shock. It was all starting to make a crazy kind of sense; Ránayeldë was not the name of a race, at least not any of this realm but the words themselves?
Él… star, Rána and yeld… moon and daughter… the bits and pieces began coming together in Arwen's mind though she pushed aside the idea as completely ridiculous… or was it? Stranger things had happened in these lands and why couldn't a star, a daughter of the moon, find incarnation on earth? The peredhel's shadowed green gaze looked over at Él who was occupying herself by picking the small night blooming flowers near the wood's edge. Though Arwen's logical mind denied it, everything else in her that made up who she was recognized its absolute truth.
This was her fallen star.